VPRA data shows delayed trains all too common for commuters

Henrico County-based urban planner Andy Clarke frequently experiences travel delays on the nation's passenger rail system.

He's a regular traveler between the Staples Mill Road Amtrak train station in Henrico County and Union Station in Washington, D.C., on his way to visit his company's home office in Silver Spring, Maryland. And he recently traveled by Amtrak to business meetings in Wilmington, Delaware and Providence, Rhode Island.

“I've been stuck behind VRE trans, freight trains, track maintenance, heat advisories,” said Clarke, a Henrico County resident. [My] last trip home included a three-hour delay because of electrical or internet failure in New Jersey!”

Despite the problems Clarke has experienced, he and many other travelers going north, south and east of Staples Mill Road Amtrak station find the train preferable, safer and better than driving.

“To be honest, I still wouldn't ever dream or choose to drive as an alternative,” Clarke said.

He's not alone.

Staples Mill is the busiest Amtrak facility in the Southeast, with 10 routes passing through, including the long-distance Carolinian, Floridian, Northeast Regional, Palmetto and Silver Meteor routes, as well as regional routes to Norfolk and Newport News.

Staples Mill station's 2024 statistics showed annual station ridership totaling 464,881 passengers, with annual ticket revenue totaling $27.8 million. That was more than double the number of riders from Richmond's Main Street Station.

In 2023, more than 424,000 passengers used the Staples Mill station, which was an increase of almost 100,000 passengers from the previous year.

Despite the growing ridership from Staples Mill and a “ridership record” of 4 million passengers in Fiscal Year 2025 (a 4.8% increase compared to FY24), data presented by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority at its quarterly board meeting this week showed chronic delay issues on Virginia regional and long-distance trains

The VPRA owns 400 miles of rail corridor and manages all administrative and fiduciary responsibilities for Virginia's state-supported Amtrak Virginia passenger rail service, according to its website.

That includes the current eight daily roundtrips that originate in Roanoke, Norfolk, Newport News and Richmond. Created five years ago, VPRA is responsible for promoting, sustaining and expanding the availability of passenger and commuter rail service in Virginia.

Many trains are chronically late

Tracking an average of 248 long distance trains a month from May to July, a quarterly service performance update presentation by Jeremy Latimer, senior director of rail services at the VPRA, showed some of the worst on-time rates:

• the Floridian was late 91% of the time and on time only 3% of the time heading northbound and 15% of the time heading south;

• the Silver Meteor was late 68% of the time and was on-time going north only 27% of the time;

• the Palmetto and the Carolinian were late half of the time, with the northbound Palmetto route arriving on time only 30% of the time.

In July, the 248 long distance Amtrak trains traveling through Virginia had a 34.4% on-time rate, which translated into 10,000 minutes of delays, according to the presentation.

The regional routes passing through Staples Mill between May and July this year fared better in their on-time performance, with the Newport News route achieving a 58% on-time rate and the Norfolk route achieving a rate of 53%.

In July, the 487 Virginia regional trains showed an average of 52% on-time performance, but that was equal to a total of 17,000 minutes of train delays.

Regional southbound trains originating from Washington, D.C. were chronically late.

'It is chaos:' Staffing, an aging fleet, heat and freight to blame

“Looking at the trends and the data told us, actually [the problem is] coming out of Union Station,” Latimer said. “Amtrak controlled Union Station has been our challenge. [In the data] we started to see that Union Station is not functioning well, and they're sending trains into Virginia extremely late.”

VPRA has been working with Amtrak on its staffing problem and implementing a hiring plan, Latimer said.

“They had a crew shortage. They still had engine change issues. There's a lot of things going on in these stations,” Latimer said. “If you ever get up to these stations in the summertime and just spend time in the afternoon on the platform, it is chaos.”

Amtrak implemented a plan that has shown an improvement in on-time arrivals, Latimer said, but there are still crew issues, delays in changing the engines from diesel to electric, mechanical issues and the fact that Amtrak has an aging fleet.

“[Amtrak is] working on answering some questions for the operator for the states that are contracting with them for operations,” Latimer said. “But this is a problem because when it happens it can be very disruptive.”

Another major reason given for delays included mechanical problems in locomotive or coach and Amtrak train interference. In Virginia, Amtrak utilizes tracks owned and operated by CSX.

According to Amtrak's dedicated page to explaining freight train-caused delays: "Freight train interference — a dispatching decision made by a freight railroad to delay Amtrak passengers so that freight trains can operate first — caused 850,000 minutes of delay in 2024. For over 50 years, freight railroads have been required by law to provide Amtrak with “preference” to run passenger trains ahead of freight trains. However, many freight railroads ignore the law because it is extremely difficult for Amtrak to enforce it, and as a result, people and the American economy suffer.”

The weather was another frequent cause of delays for Amtrak trains this summer, with 40 days of heat ordered delays recorded between May 25 and Aug. 2.

On a positive note, VPRA reported an increase in compliance or customer service standards since the organization began tracking that a year ago by measuring metrics set forth by Amtrak. Those include conditions that affect travelers, such as Wi-Fi connectivity, cafe service announcements, trash collection and restroom cleanliness.

At the VPRA board meeting, leadership gave detailed reports about the organization's major projects to give passenger rail priority, including constructing new tracks adjacent to the existing corridor exclusively for passenger trains, as well as bypasses, bridges, layover facilities and station projects.

The Airo, “duel driven” locomotives with both electric and diesel engines needed from Virginia to north of Washington, D.C. are expected to arrive in 2027. Latimer said the new fleet is expected to reduce congestion.

While numerous upgrades will cause disruptions, in the end, the VPRA staff said the projects would improve travel times and user experience.

As for Clarke, his most recent train ride had a happy ending.

"Yesterday, the train home was bang on time, even a couple of minutes early. No issues at all," Clarke reported. "Was able to get the bus back from the train station in sufficient time to join the Wednesday night bike ride out of the Blue Ridge Cyclery bike shop in the neighborhood."

Dina Weinstein is the Citizen’s community vitality reporter and a Report for America corps member, covering housing, health and transportation. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.